Purchasing accessories can be a difficult and time consuming process. For example, a customer shopping for a pair of sunglasses typically travels to a store selling sunglasses. At the store, the customer reviews the sunglasses displayed in the store. The customer then selects a pair of sunglasses from the displayed sunglasses, and then looks at a mirror to evaluate his or her appearance. If the sunglasses feel uncomfortable or do not complement the customer's face in a manner pleasing to the customer, the customer tries on another pair of sunglasses. This iterative process continues until the customer finds a suitable pair of sunglasses.
Purchasing accessories in this manner has many disadvantages. First, purchasing accessories in this manner is very time consuming. Accessories are typically much more ornamental than other articles worn on the body (e.g. a suit or dress). Consequently, finding an accessory that suitably complements the appearance of the intended recipient can take a long time. For exanple, it would not be unusual.for a customer to spend an entire morning or afternoon shopping before a suitable pair of sunglasses is found. The purchasing time may be even longer if for example, the customer does not find a suitable pair of sunglasses at the first store visited by the customer. In this instance, the customer must travel to another store, and the lengthy iterative selection process starts again. Second, the variety and quantity of accessories in a store is often limited by the available space in a store. For example, only a limited number of sunglasses can be displayed on a display rack in a store. It is desirable to present the customer with as many different accessories as possible to provide the customer with as many choices as possible. Third, when shopping, customers often feel pressured to try on the accessories more quickly than they would like to. For example, the customer may feel that lingering in front of an accessory display or consulting with sales associates for long periods of time would be inconsiderate to other customers. This is especially true if the accessories for sale are locked behind a glass display, which is accessible only to store employees. Consequently, the customer may try on fewer accessories than he or she would like to try on and may be pressured to purchase items that they, may not be fully satisfied with. Fourth, some accessories cannot be physically placed on the body at the store. For example, for sanitary reasons, many stores do not permit customers to try on earrings before purchasing them. Consequently, it is difficult evaluate the appearance of such accessories on the intended recipient.
There are also many additional disadvantages to purchasing sunglasses using conventional purchasing processes. For example, a customer evaluating a pair of sunglasses using conventional processes does not view an accurate image of how he or she would be viewed by persons not wearing sunglasses. When a customer wearing sunglasses looks into a mirror, the image seen by the customer, while accurate in form, is shaded by the sunglass lenses. Also, if the lenses of the sunglasses are scratched, smudged, or partially covered by labels, the customer's vision may be obscured making it difficult to see his or her image in the mirror. It is important for the customer to be able to accurately evaluate his or her true appearance in a pair of sunglasses, because sunglasses are purchased for their ornamental features as well as their functional features. Moreover, unlike clothing, sunglasses typically are not categorized by size in stores. Rather, sunglasses of different sizes are often commingled together in a display. It is therefore likely that, during the purchasing process, the customer will select several pairs of sunglasses which will not fit. This can make the purchasing process long and frustrating.
Conventional processes for evaluating and purchasing prescription eyeglasses are also difficult for the customer. When trying on a pair of prescription eyeglasses, a customer typically browses through many eyeglass frames on a display, selects a pair of eyeglass frames, removes his or her eyeglasses, places the selected eyeglass frames on his or her face, and then looks into a mirror. This process is repeated until one or more desired frames are found. Because the customer in this situation is vision impaired, the customer has a difficult time evaluating his or her appearance in the mirror. For example, if the customer is near-sighted, the customer typically moves his or her face very close to the mirror, and then strains to see what he or she looks like in the frames. Consequently, the customer has much difficulty perceiving how he or she might appear to others when wearing a pair of eyeglasses having the selected frames. Moreover, the frames being sampled typically do not have lenses.in them. Even if the customer can see himself or herself in a mirror wearing a selected pair of eyeglass frames, the customer cannot perceive how he or she might look if lenses are. present in the frames. This is especially true if the customer wants to preview how he or she might look in a particular pair of eyeglass frames having tinted, colored, or anti-reflective lenses in them.
Some of the disadvantages of traditional accessory purchasing processes have been addressed by mail order catalogs and the Internet. For example, purchasing. accessories through a mail order catalog or the Internet is faster than shopping at a store, because the time needed to travel to the store is eliminated. However, purchasing accessories through mail order catalogs and the Internet unfortunately have a number of disadvantages. For instance, because the customer cannot physically try on or preview the accessory on the intended recipient, the purchased accessory many times will not fit or suit the tastes of the customer. If the accessory does not fit or is otherwise unsuitable, the customer must return the accessory to the seller for a refund or exchange. Returning unsuitable accessories is typically done at the customer's expense and is time consuming. For example, the customer must repackage the accessory and then send it back to the seller in order to obtain a refund or exchange.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved system and method for purchasing accessories.